Final things.....

 5:39 am - Tuesday - September 30th - LPG&RVR - 49° F, humidity 60%, wind 6 mph out of the south by southeast......cloudy today with a forecast high of 62° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I began our first night shift working the annual sugar beet harvest.....

Beets being piled on the ground prior to processing

.....in Sydney, MT.  It was cold, so I bought a pair of insulated overalls, and warm jacket at a thrift store that I threw in the dumpster after our final shift had been completed.  We worked 12 hour shifts overnight for about 20 days.  Never again....lol!

We began the final day of our final four day weekend here at LPG&RVR with a shopping foray into Alturas.....also the final trip into Alturas this summer.  The next time we shop we'll be in Minden, NV next week, and the next time we merge onto US-395 will be to go south in the Newell. Highway 395, between Likely and Alturas, is being repaved and they have been working from the Modoc County Line, just south of Likely, to Alturas for the past 3 weeks, so every time we merge onto 395 there is a wait as it is reduced to one lane.  The wait this time was about 15 minutes each direction, so the 20 minute drive to Alturas took closer to 40 minutes this time, and we were not disappointed on the way back to Likely.....I think that construction stop lasted close to 20 minutes.  This section of US-395 has needed repaving for a long time, so we're all willing to be inconvenienced a little, and grateful to finally have new pavement. While we were waiting to go northbound I noticed the church I wrote about last summer had finally been lowered onto its new foundation....

The church has finally been lowered onto its new foundation

Just a few weeks ago it was still on 'stilts'

.....if you recall, this church was moved from the east side of US-395 to the west side last summer......

Waiting to proceed north near the Likely General Store

...we made two shopping stops, one at Grocery Outlet, and the other at Holiday Market before stopping at the local Subway to buy a foot long Subway Club sandwich.  In the four summers we have spent here we have never stopped there.  By the time we made it home it was 12:30 pm.

After eating our 'subs' I took a long nap, when I was awakened by rain on the roof....wait, what?  We weren't expecting rain, but we got it anyway.  Not hard, or long, but enough to wet the car, and gravel road, and reduce the dust.  The rain returned during the early morning hours of Tuesday, and continued on for several hours.  The high temp for Tuesday will be just 62° F, and it appears we may not have any temps in the 70's before we leave next Tuesday, or Wednesday.

Thanks for stopping by!

A little redemption....

 7:58 am - Monday - September 29th - LPGRVR - 58° F, humidity 60%, wind 7 mph out of the south by southeast.....heavy cloud cover today with a forecast high of 65° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were having lunch at O'Brien's Pub in Newport, Rhode Island.....

....visiting Rhode Island, and especially Newport was one of my 'bucket list' items for our nomadic travels.

After two days of terrible play the U.S. Ryder Cup team set the course on fire winning 7 of the 12 matches, and tying three others to finish at 13 points (we began the day with just 4.5 points).  Unfortunately, the Europeans only needed 2.5 points to retain the title, and the 'cup', however, they were unable to close the deal until there were just 3 matches still underway.  At least it was worth watching unlike the first two days, and the U.S. teams managed to somewhat redeem themselves.  On another sports front my L.A. Dodgers won 9 of their last 10 games to win their division for like the 12th time in the last 13 years, or something like that.  They are the defending World Series Champions.  The Sunday Night Football game between the Dallas Cowboys, and the Green Bay Packers was a high scoring affair with the game going to overtime tied at 37-37, and finishing in a 40-40 tie.....the second highest scoring tie game in the history of the NFL.  The number one high scoring game ever was back in the 60's ending in a 43-43 tie....I don't know who the two teams were, however.

Late morning TLE cleared one of our flower beds of the remaining wild flowers to prepare it for planting daffodil bulbs on Monday, so when we return next April we will already have flowers already in bloom....

Where the daffodil bulbs will be planted

We've still got wild flowers blooming in late September

Two of our four geraniums

Two more habanero peppers are on their way!

......we had much better luck with flowers, and plants this year compared to our previous three summers, and even had one of our pepper plants produce a single Habanero pepper, which TLE used recently, and it appears there are two, or three more growing.  Our potted geraniums flourished this summer, but we'll have to put them, along with the pepper plants in the trailer in the next few days as the overnight lows will be consistently in the low 30's.  As of today (Monday) we have 14 consecutive days with temps in the 60's, including the final  7, or 8 days until we haul anchor.

Thanks for stopping by!

The cookoff.....

 8:36 am - Sunday - September 28th - LPG&RVR - 59° F, humidity 37%, wind 4 mph out of the south by southeast.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 79° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were having a late lunch at Trinity Brewhouse.....

They had this intriguing mural on one of the walls (click on picture to enlarge)

....in Providence, Rhode Island.

We began Saturday with hopes that the U.S. team would work their way back into contention at the Ryder Cup being played at the Beth Page Black course at Farmingdale, NY on Long Island.  Those hopes were quickly dashed as we turned on the TV around 7 am to find that the U.S. was losing three of the four morning matches, and then lost three of the four afternoon matches to find themselves down 11.5 points to 4.5 points.  To win the U.S. needs 14.5 points, which means they would have to win 10 of the 12 singles matches on Sunday to get there...NOT VERY PROBABLE, but remotely possible.  Europe only needs to get 2.5 points to reach 14 ( a tie) points to retain the title they won two years ago in in Rome, Italy.

Saturday was also the day of the annual cookoff hosted by Likely Place Golf and RV Resort.  The past few years it has been a BBQ Ribs cookoff, but this year was changed to a Chili cookoff.  The time of the contest was 5 pm on the wooden deck overlooking the putting green.....

Sampling the entries....there were 10

.....every table was filled with mostly locals (those who live onsite during the summer).  Every entry was good, but we each had to vote for our top three.  In the end DeWayne Matthew, the fire chief, had the favorite Chili entry, followed by Mike Bratzler who won the Rib cookoff the last 3 years, and then Donna Nagy.  The entries were labeled 1 thru 10.   I managed to vote for two out of the three top choices.  

A great time was had by all.  LPG&RVR is the kind of small town in which we all wish we could live out our lives.  All of the positives of small town living without any of the negatives.  It's actually quite remarkable, hence I am remarking.  Maybe part of the magic is that we are all here just 5 months out the year each year.  I really do not know, but I believe Dennis and Kellie Tate (owners) have a lot to do with what we have here.

And now, here we are, at the end of our fourth summer season living here at LPG&RVR.  We have loved our summer, and being with our friends.  There will be many 'until next time' sessions over the next week, filled with those all too familiar bitter sweet feelings, and then in 7 months we will reconvene here for another lovely summer.

Thanks for stopping by!

Friendly confines....

 7:11 am - Saturday - September 27th - LPG&RVR - 44° F, humidity 23%, wind 1 mph out of the southeast......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 85° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were visiting Canyon Falls.....

.....in Yellowstone National Park....amazing!

Friday was the first day of our four day weekend, and we did what we usually do.....pretty much nothing.  We did watch quite a few hours of the Ryder Cup, but were completely disappointed in the outcome.  The U.S. team, playing on home ground against a very good European team, gave up 8.5 points and scored only 3.5 points in matches that heavily favored them on paper, and that is the secret I guess.  On paper this is one of the strongest teams we have fielded, however, they played well below their potential, and the Europeans played way, way above expectations.  We expected this Ryder Cup to be very competitive, but thought we would win in the end, however, it was anything but that.  It was a complete mismatch of epic proportions.

Weatherwise it was a very nice 80° F day with no A/C needed.  I spent the afternoon outdoors on the 'lido deck' reading, and taking a nap, and I did actually drain the black tank right after posting my latest blog entry in the morning, but that was as far as I ventured from the friendly confines of our 'lido deck' all day.  We've got one more day with temps in the 80's (Saturday) and then we spend the rest of our remaining time here in the LOW 70's and mid 60's.  Our next four day work week (our last) will not see one daily high above 68° F according to the weather guessers.  Please accept my apologies for not posting this current blog entry until late Saturday, but I felt a little lazy today.  I did start to write this missive a little after 7 am, but decided to wait to finish it until later today (Saturday).

Thanks for stopping by!

Fall wear.....

 7:51 am - Friday - September 26th - LPG&RVR  - 48° F, humidity 33%, wind 2 mph out of the northeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 80° F. On this date in 2015 TLE and I were walking on South Cape Beach.....

....at Cape Blanco, OR....we so love Coastal Oregon!

Ahhh...the 4th, and last day of our four day weekend!  It was a Thursday so that means clearing the driving range of golf balls for its eventual mowing.  Prior to that I staged 5 golf carts initially, and we rented 14...another good weekday considering we are in the last week of our season.  There were 6 golf carts to wash, so I took care of them, then headed out on the 2 bag Husqvarna to mow the residential lawns, then one of the buddy sites, and finally the grass next to site #30.  By that time it was 10 am and time to begin clearing the driving range. It was still quite cold Thursday morning, so for the first time in months I wore my heavy Fall coat....

....I figured there were less than 3 five gallon buckets of balls out there, so I decided to use the 'Shag Bag' and walk the driving range clearing the balls.  It took just over an hour to complete that task, which gave me time soak, and begin washing them before TLE's lunch break.  I ended up with 2.5 buckets of balls.....just like I thought.  By the time 12 pm rolled around I had washed half of the balls, leaving the balance for after lunch.

Lunch was actually quite busy with a lot of beverage and snack sales, and one foursome for 9 holes.  By the time TLE returned I had just two hours left in my work day, and it went quickly.  I finished washing the range balls, poured them back into the 55 gallon barrel, then washed/stowed golf carts until quitting time.  By the time the the day was finished only 8 of the 14 had been returned, so Dave will have 6 to wash/stow first thing Friday.

It's been a while since we grilled some steaks, so I invited Claude over for dinner.  He supplied the steaks, I grilled them, and TLE provided sides of mashed potatoes, and honey corn....

....I lit the Sea-B-Que around 5:45 pm, and by 6 pm I was grilling the steaks.  It took just shy of 10 minutes to reach the magic medium rare.  We ate, sipped a little vino, talked, and laughed until almost 7:30 pm.  A very pleasant way to end another work 'week'.

Thanks for stopping by!

6:53 am, and 6:53 pm......

 5:33 am - Thursday - September 25th - LPG&RVR - 48° F, humidity 37%, wind 2 mph out of the southeast.....partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 83° F.  Today the sun will rise at 6:53 am and set at 6:53 pm....exactly 12 hours of daylight, and 12 hours of darkness....COOL!  On this date in 2015 Vin Scully called his last Dodger home game....

.....we were at Tahoe Valley Campground that day.  The Dodgers won that game with a walk off homerun, and there is no one who makes a better home run call than Vin.  RIP Vin Scully!

As the days become shorter, and our time here at LPG&RVR does the same.  With the completion of the 3rd day in our four day work week we have just 5 more work days, and perhaps around 12-13 days before we haul anchor and begin our slow trek south.  Most every deciduous tree is now changing colors, and that chilly Fall crispness is in the air.  As I noted above the sun will rise and set exactly 12 hours apart today (9/25).  I'm wearing my hoody sweatshirt until after 10 am these days, but just a week ago I was shedding it before 8 am each day.  Seasonal changes are abrupt here just 70 miles from the Oregon border.

We only had one tee time reserved when we began Wednesday, but by the end of the day 10 carts had been rented....a slowish day to be sure.  I had some mowing to do before TLE's lunch break, and some grass to water, so I had plenty with which to keep busy.  Before I began to mow I headed up the hill to check on the new park model which was delivered for two of our members.....

....who've had a trailer in this site for a number of years.  I guess hey plan to stay a while....lol.  Its about 368 square feet, and should be ready for occupancy within a week, or so.

As I made my way around the golf course mowing around 'my' tee boxes I couldn't help but notice how many trees have completely changed color now....

.....I was finished mowing just before 12 pm, so I had time to blow the grass of the mower deck, and refuel it before I put it away.  Just as I entered the Clubhouse to give TLE her lunch break Claude arrived to let us know they had finished punching and sanding the sod farm, which is always the final job each year.  Claude and I spent the next hour talking about our summer here, and our plans for the winter.  By the time he headed home to get some lunch it was well after 1 pm, and almost time for TLE to return.  I answered just one phone call, and sold a bottle of Gatorade in 90 minutes.

By the time I headed home at the end of my shift only four of the 10 carts had returned.....our first golfers didn't tee off until after 10 am, with the final golfers going out after TLE's lunch break.  The temperature definitely hit the forecast high of 88° F, and that will be the last hot day this season.  Temps will slide back into the 70's by the weekend, and into the 60's for our final 4 day work week.

Thanks for stopping by!

Four seasons.....

 5:34 am - Wednesday - September 24th - LPG&RVR - 42° F, humidity 23%, wind 2 mph out of the east by southeast.....clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 88° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were riding the Island Line Rail Trail along Lake Champlain.....

.....in Vermont.  Good times!

It's been a while since I checked the water levels in the 30 six volt batteries in our Club Car electrics, so I didn't stage them Tuesday morning.  We were expecting to rents 15-16 carts Tuesday so I initially staged 10, then went to work checking those batteries, adding distilled water as necessary.....

.....it was a beautiful Fall morning (Fall began officially at 11:19 am PDT on Tuesday) at LPG&RVR as I began to work on the Club Car electrics. Everything is so green right now after all the rain we've had the past few weeks.  It's as green as I've seen it this time of year at LPG&RVR......

......and TLE was getting the office up and running for the day.....

....she has a new stand up desk, which she loves....  

....it became apparent pretty quickly that I did not have enough distilled water to complete the task at hand, so I drove into Likely to visit the Likely General Store to buy four gallons ($2.89/gallon....still less than regular unleaded...lol), then returned to finish the job.  In all I used 3 gallons of distilled water to top off the 30 batteries.  It was only 11 am at this point so I decided to head out to the 2nd green to help the green punchers scrape sand off the green.  I worked with them for about an hour before heading back to the Clubhouse to give TLE her 90 minute lunch break.  About half way through TLE's lunch break they began to punch the putting green in front of the Clubhouse, and by the time lunch was over it had been plugged, and sanded....they move quickly!

There were four returned carts awaiting me at the 'Cart Return' when I exited the Clubhouse after lunch, so I began washing them, and that it what I continued doing for the next 90 minutes as one cart after another was returned until it was time to end my shift.  I got all but 4 of the 16 cart rentals washed and stowed, so I'll have them to finish first thing Wednesday.

 Tuesday evening was 'hump night' so only two more days left in this 4 day shift, then there will be just 4 more left before we begin preparing to haul anchor.  This season has passed by so quickly.  We arrived here at the very end of Winter, went through a longish Spring, then a short Summer, and now it is Fall.  I love living where the four seasons are distinct, and obvious.

Thanks for stopping by!

Then there were 7......

 5:41 am - Tuesday - September 23rd - LPG&RVR - 42° F, humidity 31%, wind ZERO mph out of the southeast......sunny today with a forecast high of 86° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were having lunch at Burlington Beer Company.....

.....in Burlington, VT on the shores of Lake Champlain.  We were staying at the Burlington Elks Lodge while there.

The first day of the final 8 days of work here at LPG&RVR was busy with 15 golf carts rented.  By 3:30 pm 12 of them had been returned.  I kept myself busy doing some string trimming at the employee sites, which Dave had mowed the day prior, and down in tent sites 1-3 where Dave had also mowed Sunday.  After that I retrieved the 2 bag Husqvarna riding lawnmower to mow the pull through sites.  I was able to get all but one of the 15 sites mowed....one site had too much law furniture, plus a dining canopy deployed for me to mow it.  That took me up to TLE's lunch break.

The lunch break was mostly quiet with just a few telephone calls to answer, and a few people buying beer and snacks, but otherwise it was very quiet for the 90 minutes I was there.  By this time (1:30 pm) four carts had been returned, and as I washed them more carts began to return until I had washed and stowed 12 of the 15 carts we had rented.  The final three returned sometime between 3:30 and 5 pm when I returned to give TLE a ride home at the end of her shift.

Even though it reached 80° F, according to Weather.com, it did not feel that warm.  I wore my hoody sweatshirt until after 10 am.  Since the guys are still punching greens this week DeWayne didn't have time to mow the driving range, so I deferred its clearing until Thursday when he will be done punching greens, and be able to mow.  There are only 1, or 2 greens left to punch, plus the putting green and sod farm, so they should be done by Wednesday.  The greens which were punched last week are already recovering quite quickly due to the moderate weather we've had the past 10 days.  Last year we were already getting overnight lows in the 30's, which slows the recovery, but this year they've all been in the low to mid 40's.

We've just 7 days of work left now, and time is getting short.  TLE and I decided we're not going to begin packing up until after our last work day on October 3rd.  We'll take 3, or 4 days to put things away, and are aiming for an October 6th, or 7th departure.  We're not rushing this year to be on the road. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Second to last.....

 5:37 am - Monday - September 22nd - LPG&RVR - 43° F, humidity 49%, wind ZERO mph out of the east.....clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 80° F.  On this date in 2017 we received over 12" of snow at the Mammoth Hot Springs General Store.....

.....winter comes early to Yellowstone National Park.

There aren't many, what I would call, good restaurants in Alturas, and we've looked.  There are, however, a couple of great breakfast places in Alturas, one being the Wagon Wheel Restaurant located on SR-139 just west of the four way stop in town.  As you know, we do not eat breakfast as a habit, in fact we rarely have breakfast, but we hear on almost a daily basis that the the Wagon Wheel Restaurant must be tried, so Sunday we decided to do just that.  We were in the VW headed into town around 9:10 am, arriving at the restaurant around 9:30 am.....

'The Wagon Wheel'....I always place my over easy eggs over the hashbrowns, adding a little pepper and Tabasco

Mushroom & Cheese Omelette

.....it is a simple country restaurant like the kind found in most rural American towns.  We have spent most of the last 13+ years living in rural America, and eating in restaurants just like The Wagon Wheel, and we have loved them all.  The menu is chock full of what I call good, basic American breakfast fare.  TLE ordered their Mushroom/Cheese Omelette, and I their 'Wagon Wheel Breakfast' (biscuits and gravy, 2 eggs any style, hashbrowns and bacon).  The coffee is poured into preheated mugs, and is the kind which you just want one refill after another.  They were, as one might expect on a Sunday morning, very busy, but we were seated quickly, and had our order placed within 10 minutes.  As we sat sipping our coffees we could hear the typical conversations you hear in rural town cafes.  People in rural America are just living their lives centered in faith, family, friends, and work.  We lingered there for almost an hour enjoying our menu choices, while talking about these very things.

We hadn't originally planned on doing any shopping over our 4 day weekend, but since we were in town for breakfast we picked up a few things at Holiday Market, Dollar General, and ACE Hardware before heading home to enjoy the final day of our weekend.  I spent a few hours on the 'lido deck' watching NFL football.  The forecast high for Sunday was 77° F, and it may have gotten there for a few minutes, but by 3 pm I retreated to the warm interior of the Newell as the temperature began to fall.

Every team for which I was rooting Sunday (except for Tampa Bay) lost heart breaking games right in the final seconds of their games.  The Rams had two game winning field goals blocked in the final 5 minutes of their game against the Eagles.  Nevertheless, it was a great Sunday afternoon.  Time to head back to work for our second to last four day work week.

Thanks for stopping by!

Community....

 8:04 am - Sunday - September 21st - LPG&RVR - 57° F, humidity 54%, wind ZERO mph out of the southeast......partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 77° F.  On this date in 2107 we had a dusting of snow in Gardiner, MT....

....Gardiner is near the northern entrance to Yellowstone National Park, and where we lived for 4 months whilst toiling in the General Store in Mammoth Hot Springs that summer.  Ironically, September 20th that year was the last day of Summer.

Saturday was full of college football games from 9 am PDT until well after 11 pm.  The USC game did not commence until 8 pm, and for the first time in years they have begun a season 4-0 by defeating the Michigan State Spartans 45-31.  I was tempted to watch that game until the end, but I'm old now, and staying up past 10 pm rarely happens anymore....lol.  They were up 31-10 midway through the 3rd quarter, so there was a lot of scoring in the last 25 minutes, or so.

Around 1 pm I drove over to the putting green for one last practice session before the final at 4 pm.  Around 3:45 pm TLE and I headed over to find seating room on the grass between the Clubhouse deck and the putting green....

TLE found her seat...I always bring one of our camp chairs

....as is often the case not everyone who placed 1st, or 2nd during the summer was able to be in attendance, so out of the 20+ folks who placed in the money this summer only 8 where able to be present Saturday, but they were 8 of the best, and most of them had placed in the money 2, or 3 times.....some 5 times like moi...lol....

.....my first match was against Greg Plumlee who had won this championship in 2023 and 2024, but I was able to best him to move to the second round.  My second match was against Rich Samco, who I believe placed in the money twice this summer, and entering the final hole we were tied.  We both made good first putts on the 5th hole, but I barely missed my second putt.  On this day Mike Bratzler had set us up for double elimination, which means you can lose once, but play out of the losers bracket until you lose a second time.  My first match in the losers bracket was Terri Plumlee, wife of Greg, who is also placed in the money 3 times this year.  Both Greg and Terri are terrific putters, and I have never beaten them both on the same day, but this day I was able to do that pretty easily.  Then came my second match in the losers bracket against Dewayne Matthews (Fire Chief), with whom I have split all of our previous encounters pretty much 50/50.  On this day he was on fire, and I lost my mojo losing the first three holes to be ousted from the tournament, but finished in 4th place.  

Rich Samco was undefeated going into the final match against Dewayne, and beginning the 5th and final hole DeWayne was tied with Rich.  Both made good putts, but DeWayne's 2nd putt lipped out giving Rich the Championship.....

DeWayne on the left, and Rich on the right at the first of 5 holes

.....win, lose, or draw, it was a fun time for all.  I'll have the knowledge that I placed in the money 5 times this summer, and managed to defeat both Plumlee's on the same day to tide me over for the winter.

As I sit here composing this missive I can't help but smile at how integrated TLE and I have become in this golfing community of LPG&RVR.  We can truly call all of these people good friends.  Everyone here gets along famously, and regardless of political persuasion we all have the love and appreciation of this place in common, and that is what binds us together into a very tightly knit community.

Thanks for stopping by!

'Slug' for a day.....

 7:21 am - Saturday - September 20th - LPG&RVR - 57° F, humidity 54%, wind 1 mph out of the southeast.....heavy cloud cover, chance of rain and a forecast high of 77° F today.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were standing on top of Mt. Washington in New Hampshire.....

.....can you imagine winds of 231 miles per hour?!  We drove to the top and back, which I do not recommend.  Was very hard on our brakes going back down the mountain.  We were in first gear all the way down, had to apply the brakes constantly, and stop every few minutes to let the disc brakes cool.  Take the funicular train instead...lol....

....and on this date in 2022 there was snow on Eagle Mountain.....

.....Likely Place Golf and RV Resort.

After a task filled day Thursday I took off Friday from all work type activity.  I drove Club Car Villager #20 over to the Clubhouse to sign up for the putting contest finale, and spent about 30 minutes on the putting green practicing Saturday morning, then spent the rest of the day on the 'lido deck' reading, and listening to 60's Gold on Sirius/XM radio (73).  The forecast high for Friday was 80° F, but I do not believe it exceeded 76° F as it was cloudy all day long, and I mean very cloudy, as in 'leaden skies' cloudy.

I wish I had more to report, but I do not.  That is the price of being a 'slug' for a day.  I must say, however, that being a 'slug' on occasion is quite rewarding in the micro sense.  In the macro sense it is not a habit which should become a part of your daily life style.....lol!  I did not receive a single mosquito bite in the 3 hours I was outside, which is noteworthy, as the mosquitoes have been quite bad this summer.   There was also a delightfully long 30, or 40 minute nap thrown in for good measure.  Finally, around 4:30 pm the outdoor temp began to fall, and I had to make the choice of either changing into long pants, and a long sleeve t-shirt to remain outdoors, or go inside....I went inside.

For dinner TLE prepared, for the second time this summer, Mississippi Pot Roast in her Vita Clay Organic Multi-Cooker.  It's kind of like a 'crock pot', but way more versatile.  TLE has had several 'crock pots' over the 13 years we've been on the road, but this Vita Clay slow cooker has them all beat, and she uses it on a regular basis, whereas she rarely ever used the multiple 'crock pots' we've owned over the years.  Oh my goodness, is that ever a great dish!  That needs to become a more regular menu item in the Hockwald household.

Thanks for stopping by!

Repairs.....

 7:58 am - Friday - September 19th - LPG&RVR - 61° F, humidity 40%, wind 1 mph out of the northeast......heavy cloud cover today with a forecast high of 80° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were driving I-90 in the Big Sky Country of Montana.....

.....heading to Missoula.

You may, or may not remember that a few months ago, just after arriving here for the summer season, I repaired one of the damaged wire ropes on the rear ramp door of the trailer.  While we were in Bishop, on our way here, it had unraveled when TLE was lowering it to attend to her plants.  It took us a couple of hours, but we rewound both wire ropes over the spring loaded spools, and were able to close the ramp door, but in the process damaged the driver side cable.  All that being said, when I was repairing the wire rope on the driver side, just after we arrived here, I unwittingly partially unwound the wire rope on the passenger side.  The repair involved shortening the driver side wire rope to remove the damaged section.  I wasn't sure at the time if it was still long enough to lower the ramp door all the way to the ground, but didn't deal with it then as I was 99% sure it was still long enough.  Fast forward to Wednesday evening, TLE and I were going to lower the ramp door to be sure that driver side wire rope was long enough to lower the door to the ground, enabling us to insert the VW next month.  That's when we discovered that I had partially unraveled the spool on the passenger side, and the wire rope completely came off the spool.....doh!

As this error had serious implications for our ability to haul anchor next month I had to first rewind the wire rope on the passenger side spool, and once that was done, lower the door to see if the wire rope on the driver side was long enough.  If not I would need to visit ACE Hardware in Alturas to buy new wire rope and completely redo the whole system....

That is way, way too much slack!!

.....in short the wire rope was long enough to lower the door to the ground, and we were able to get the passenger side rewound, then lower the door, but it had a little 'slack' in it (above), so ultimately I had to shorten the driver side wire rope to match the length of the driver side.  By the time I finished it was almost noon time, and some 3 hours had slipped into the past.  That aside, the door is now repaired, and VW insertion early next month will go on as scheduled.

My next, and very important task was to removed the old expansion tank in the water bay.  The expansion tank only comes into play when we are using the house water pump to push H₂O through our copper plumbing.  The tank prevents the water pump from surging.  We had a serious problem with the pump surging last winter, and didn't realize the bladder in the expansion tank had ruptured, thereby rendering it useless.  I thought it was the water pump, but it wasn't.  When our friends Tom and Darlene were here a couple of weeks ago I discussed the problem with Tom.  He suggested adding a little air pressure to the tank, but I told him I had tried to and water came out the Schraeder valve.  He, in turn, said then the bladder has ruptured, and I needed a new tank.  Fast forward to 10 days ago....I ordered a new 2 gallon expansion tank, and it arrived a few days ago.  I had assessed what needed to be done, and I had all the parts necessary to install the new tank.  Unlike the wire rope incident, this was a pretty straight forward installation....

The old 43 years of age, 1 gallon expansion tank

This picture gives a little perspective to where in the water bay the tank resides.  As I look at this picture I realize how much work I've done in the driver side of the water bay.....I've replaced the electric heater (upper right), the water pump (lower right), both rubber gaskets in the two dump valves (lower left), and now the expansion tank (center) since we purchased the Newell in 2008.  Not to mention that we had to remove the fresh water tank back in 2013 to make a repair to the black tank.

I've also replaced the water pressure regulator (lower right), and the city water gate valve (lower center).

.....I keep in stock numerous 'Sharkbite' fittings for just such a repair and already had the 1/2" elbow, and the 1/2" connector with a threaded male end to screw into the new expansion tank.  I just unscrewed the old compression fitting to remove the old tank, the cut off the flare, and the rest was quick and easy....

The final installation

.....once the tank was installed I had TLE turn on the water pump (after having closed the city gate valve) and run the shower......it worked!  No more surging!  You may wonder why I used such a long nipple to connect the tank to the elbow.  Simply put, the original nipple I cut was about 3" in length, but when I tried to connect the tank to the elbow the hose bib to the left in the picture was in the way, so I had to use a longer nipple to get the tank above the hose bib.

By the time I finished putting away tools, and cleaning up the area it was after 3 pm, and another day at LPG&RVR was basically in the books.  I took a shower, and then took a nap.  Later we watched the Thursday night NFL game between Miami and Buffalo.  It was a very good game, and close until the end, which is all for which we can ask, right?

Thanks for stopping by!